Washington, DC--Women risk having their vitamin D levels fall when they stop using birth control pills or other contraceptives containing estrogen, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Vitamin D is a hormone involved in the immune system and managing calcium levels in the blood. Proper calcium levels are necessary for bone health.

Recent legislation is encouraging clinical trials in children, including the Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act and the Pediatric Research Equity Act. Yet clinical trials in children commonly go either uncompleted or unpublished, finds a comprehensive study conducted by researchers at Boston Children's Hospital. Results were published online August 4 by the journal Pediatrics.

In all, 19 percent of trials were discontinued early, and 30 percent of completed trials remained unpublished in the medical literature several years later. "We feel there is a lot of inefficiency and waste that could be addressed," says senior investigator Florence Bourgeois, MD, MPH, of Boston Children's Hospital.

Mucous membrane pemphigoid is an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation and scarring in mucosal tissues. Affected individuals frequently exhibit scarring in the eye, which can lead to blindness in as many as 20% of patients. In this issue of JCI Insight, two related studies report on the underlying cause of fibrosis in the eye and implicate an important role for vitamin A metabolism. A group of researchers led by John Dart at UCLA show that the enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), which produces the vitamin A metabolite retinoic acid, is elevated in mucous membrane tissue in the eye from mucous membrane pemphigoid patients.

A new study reveals that those who affiliate with the Democratic Party have different views than those who vote Republican on the following issues: the likelihood of floods occurring, adopting protection measures, and expectations of disaster relief from the government. The study was jointly conducted by VU University in Amsterdam, Utrecht University School of Economics in The Netherlands, and the Center for Risk Management and Decision Processes at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, USA.

Kyoto, Japan -- When human and chimp infants are dozing, they sometimes show facial movements that resemble smiles. These facial expressions -- called spontaneous smiles -- are considered the evolutionary origin of real smiles and laughter.

Researchers at Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute show that this not only happens to higher-order primates like humans and chimpanzees, but also in newborn Japanese macaques, which are more distant relatives in the evolutionary tree.

A joint University of Adelaide-Shanghai Jiao Tong University study has provided the first broad picture of the evolution and possible functions in the plant of pollen allergens.

Published in the journal Plant Physiology, the researchers believe their work may help with medical research into the reduction or prevention of allergic diseases such as asthma and allergic rhinitis (hay fever).

"During the past four decades, allergic diseases have become a global health problem," says project leader Professor Dabing Zhang, who leads the University of Adelaide and Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Laboratory for Plant Science and Breeding.